You can add my name to the list of critics and reviewers who have been singing the praises for Joel Selvin's new book "Hollywood Eden." (I just finished reading it for the SECOND time in the past three months ... yes, it really IS that good!)
The glamour and allure of Hollywood has been with us for over 80 years now ... the California Dream of a better life drove families from all over the country to "head west, young man," seeking their fortune (or, in many cases, their fame and fortune) there. Not since The California Gold Rush has there been such a migration as what we experienced in the '50's and '60's.
Many people have long felt that most of these privileged kids, born into wealth and, in many instances, stardom lived silver spoon lives in a time when other, often more talented artists, were left in the dust due to nepotism and worse. Hollywood High (and other schools like it in the area) regularly turned out star after star after star as a matter of course during this era. Nancy Sinatra, Dino, Desi and Billy, drummer Sandy Nelson, The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, Phil Spector, Herb Alpert, The Rip Chords, Johnny Rivers, The Byrds and transplants like The Mamas and the Papas and The Monkees all enjoyed MASSIVE success thanks to connections made along the way once they hit the California coastline.
Selvin accurately proclaims the High School Graduating Class of 1958 as the FIRST Rock And Roll High School Graduating Class. (There's a lot of merit to this statement ... Bill Haley and the Comets launched the Rock Era on a global scale with their recording of "Rock Around The Clock" in 1955 ... and other rock star celebrities followed ... everyone from Elvis Presley to Sam Cooke to Gene Vincent to Eddie Cochran to Buddy Holly to Jerry Lee Lewis and many, many more all capitalized on this new genre of music as, for the first time in recorded history, TEENAGERS dominated the record-buying public.)
What I like about Selvin's book is that while most profiles of The California Scene during this era deal with all the glitz and the glamour, Joel exposes the UNDERBELLY of that very same California Scene ... and often in graphic (and sometimes heartbreaking) detail.
A young, 16-year-old Bruce Johnston seeing a record company executive killed right before his eyes ... Drummer Sandy Nelson, losing a leg in an auto accident after scoring a couple of Top Ten drum-oriented hits ... the OTHER side of Jan Berry (of Jan and Dean), manipulating everybody he crossed paths with along the way to further his own needs and desires ... Nancy Sinatra, having an abortion while still in high school before marrying teen heartthrob Tommy Sands (and changing her image forever once she hooked up with Record Producer Lee Hazlewood), the dueling studio antics of Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, as both invented new sounds with every new recording while continuously trying to outdo one another ... Jan's tragic Dead Man's Curve accident ... they're all here in living color, including all of the gory details.
Truth is, it's fascinating ... can't put the book down fascinating ... and if you love the music of the late '50's on thru the mid-'60's, this book is for you. You will walk away with SO much new insight into what really went on behind the scenes during this magical and fascinating era of music that you, too, will soon be singing its praises.
(10 out of 10) kk
